Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Up To The Mountain

I moved up into the mountains to a
little town called Mountain View. Mountain View bills itself as the
Folk Music Center of the World. If you need to buy a dulcimer, this
is the place for you. Usually, Mountain View has a population during
the year of about 2500 but when Bean Fest happens, the population
swells to over 30,000. The Arkansas also has a state park here which
is called the Ozark Village State Park which was my primary draw.

The State Park is set up like a small
village. Each of the buildings has some sort of Ozark craft focus
where you can learn about various crafts. Did I mention that there
was also a kindergarten class that was wandering around also, so some
of the crafts I got to learn about on a kindergarten level which was
actually fun because we got to do little hands on crafty things.

In between my kindergarten crafts, I
spent a lot of time talking to the various artists. I especially
enjoyed the candle maker. It looked like a lot of fun to make
candles, she would dip strings into wax multiple times and then once
everything had dried, she would dip them in different dyes. I
decided that I need to be a candle maker.

Candle Making

There were also other buildings - this was the one room school house

I also enjoyed the Apothecary Shop,
where I learned all about soap making. The woman said that it had
been 15 years since she had used commercial soap on her hair or body.
She talked about how it was pretty much a chemistry project, putting
together different chemicals, melting them in a big pot and adding
essential oils. If it didn't have Lye in it, it wasn't soap. I'm
thinking I should start making soap.

The other fascinating shop I visited
was a copper shop. They would take a piece of copper and they would
paint with a mini blow torch. Depending on how hot the torch was and
how long you kept it on the copper, that would determine the color.
Yup, if I had any artistic talent, after my soap and candle making, I
would be a copper painter.

I also visited a knife maker, weaver,
glass blower and a potter. I guess I will have to put all of this on
my to-do list.

Of course, the highlight of my visit
was lunch. I had been wanting one of these like forever and finally
the stars aligned. I had a Frito Pie. Does life get any better than
this?

After being all crafty, I went home and
picked up Miko. We were off for Blanchard Springs. The big draw in
the area is Blanchard Caverns, but I really don't have much interest
in going underground. It was too nice of a day and I had been
promised a waterfall. This is a most excellent time to see
waterfalls in Arkansas because of all of the heavy rain that we have
had in the last few days, those waterfalls are gushing. Also because
of the rain, the creeks have all overflowed their beds. The trail I
was planning to take, went along the creek in a loop but I could only
go down one size of the creek – there was no trail or way to cross
the raging torrent.

I think that is a trail on the other side of the creek

Finally A Water Fall!!!!

Bonus - another one!!!

Miko spent a lot of time chasing these guys

As I left town, I had to stop at the
Conoco station in a little town of Leslie. When I entered Arkansas,
way back when, the woman at the Welcome Center told me that this
Conoco station makes the most fabulous chocolate rolls. They have
this dough that they spread out flat and then smother it with
chocolate, roll it up and then deep fry it. I walk in, stood in
line, asked for them and the lady says – “how many? A dozen?”
I took a deep breath and said sure. Gotta say, they are pretty
incredible.

I ended up in a Corp of Engineer Park
called Old Post Road Park. It had a nice dam and river but not a lot
of charm. There was a soccer field there that had about 100 Canadian
geese all lounging around. I thought about all those kids playing in
all that goose poop and Miko told me that she could fix the problem.
I looked around, there was nobody nearby and I let Miko go. She took
off at warp speed and it was like one of those nature photo ops from
National Geographic. One hundred geese all taking to the sky. I
sure wish I had had my camera ready.

I also have learned about a terrible
thing that Arkansas has. Something called Seed Ticks. Not so Fun
Fact: The life cycle of a wood tick is composed of four states: egg,
larval, nymphal and adult. The larval stage is also called Seed
Ticks. They are super tiny, smaller than a deer tick and they attach
themselves like a regular tick. A lot of times, you can feel them
attach – they have super sharp biting heads. I speak from
experience. They are so tiny that it is difficult to notice them,
let alone get them off. It is Seed Tick season here in Arkansas.

About Me

Retirement is grand!! I'm sorry I waited so long to get started on this phase of life. I used to travel all the time but then I got involved in the world of Icelandic Horses. That took up all of my time and money. I still have a couple of horses. I'm now trying to fit husband, horses and extended travels into the very limited 24 hours of the day. As so many others have said....how did I ever have time to work?